The Seven Pillars (Part 29)-Pillar 7-Discipling Nations & Series Summary - Rod Mills

This is a series on the 7 Pillars of the AeroNova spiritual family, the DNA markers of who God has called us to be as a people. 

​The entire series of the seven pillars, the DNA markers, of the AeroNova spiritual family is wrapped up in this transformative teaching.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





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​So yeah, it's good to see everybody we're on part 29, this will probably be the final part. I've said that a couple of times, then we get a lot of these good golden nuggets. And so we go further. So anyways, we're picking up where we left off, we're on the seventh pillar, God's call to not only to us as a spiritual family, but also to many spiritual families like us to the nation. So this is our calling to the nations, whether it be in our own city, whether it be in our own states, or the United States or overseas. This is our call to the nations. And we've, we've talked quite a bit about this. But we also looked more last week on this question, the Lord begin to ask us about how do you disciple a nation, and I shared with you guys just for a quick review, I shared with you guys on our last time together on this series, that I thought God was going to give us some strategy. Like there would be some, you know, I was thinking in intellectual more, because sometimes that's important, too. But there's this idea that God's gonna give us some strategy on how to disciple nations. Well, he gave us a strategy. All right. And what God began to show us through our own experiences with him, is the way we disciple nations is by discipling families. And as we disciple families, and we use this analogy, when we talk about forest fires, when a forest fire gets started, whether it be Well, let's talk about intentional forest fires. Now, obviously, we don't believe in just for caveats for all the people in the world listening, we don't believe in setting physical forest fires. But we do believe in spiritual forest fires, and a kind of like a spiritual arsonist, if you will. But we don't, you don't go out and set 1000 trees on fire to start a forest fire. If someone was going to start a forest fire, whether it's accidental or intentional, it's by sparks and fire just in a few places. And that's the way it starts. And I use this as an analogy. Because families are like the trees, when a family has set on fire like a tree, and you get another family set on fire, like another family tree, and then another family set on fire, like a family tree, all you need is a little bit of wind to blow, right? And who's the wind, the Bible says, The Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit begins to move. And that tree that fire transfers into the forest. And I believe God is showing this to us as a strategy for discipling nations. Now that means it takes time to disciple that nation, because it's one family at a time. In the natural, we want to figure out how to do it faster. Did you guys ever find yourself wishing God did something faster? I mean, everything God does, it seems like he's slower than we are. And then you come to find out he's actually a lot faster. It's kind of like looking at a jet in the sky. And you think it's moving slow when you're a kid till you realize that actually that jets going over 500 miles an hour, but it just looks slow to you. And that's the way it is with God. And I always said, you know, God's older than all of us. So it's, he tends to move with much more patience than we do. Do you find that when you get when you got older, you have more patience? Well, I got a few out there that will I'll tell you, for me, I find myself impatient at times. However, many times most of the time in my life. I'm a lot more patient than I used to be. I remember going to see my academic advisor when I started the master's program out there where Colin is today. There, we see him on Zoom. And, and I said, you know, I've got it, I got her, I gotta get this done, you know? And he's like, Well, how old are you? And that's why I'm 23. And he's like, man, I was like, Man, I'm behind the power curve here. And he just started laughing. And, and you know what I came to realize that I heard a clinical psychologist say this week and I sent this out to some of you if you listen to it, and he said, you know, you really don't know anything before you're 35 and if somebody would have told me that when I was 23 I would have benefited, but I know what he means now. And he said really you spend your life until you're about 35 years old apprenticing and You're apprenticing life. And if you do a good job you learn and grow. Well, this idea that we want to do things fast God has a plan. And don't worry that it's slower when God says, How do you disciple a nation, if he gives you the slow method, it's probably in the long run the fast method. But in the short term, it seems like it's a slow method, right. And so we talked about this at length. And don't, you know, don't discount the value of the fire that you carry, even though the fire may seem small, because the smallest sparks in this generation will be the greatest revivals in the coming generation. So our call to the nation's God is saying to us, and I believe many spiritual families who identify with these seven pillars and DNA markers, that we must have God's patience approach to discipling, the nation's we have to walk in God patience, not man, patience, God, patience, God's timing, we talk about God speed, that's literally what we're talking about the God speed. And that speed may seem slow, but in time, because of multiplication, it will grow. The other thing just to review, we talked about the definitions of revival. Now, many people in our day when they weren't Christians, when we say revival, they believe in their mind, what they think of is big meetings, lots of salvations, lots of miracles, things happening on the stage. And I believe that what is happening in the kingdom of God is bigger than any stage and bigger than any building. So you think about the big things God did in Scripture. Most of them were not on stages, most of the big things God did. They happen many times starting in small places, but then they spread, and they became big. And I believe that the revivals that are coming in the end of the age where many people in the generation will come to God will happen through families and spiritual families and, and in streams or rivers of relationships. And in a world of 8 billion plus people, it won't necessarily look big, when a billion people come to Christ. But we've never seen a billion people come to Christ on the earth before. And it's actually very big. But it doesn't seem big if it's in a city of 10 million people. And it's flowing through tribes, and it happens among 1 million people, the kind of see what I'm saying. So, so let's be careful that we don't automatically revert to the old school wineskins of revival, we're not criticizing those we infirm them, we believe them, we support them. And we will continue to pray. But we also want to recognize that the way God is going to move in these coming generations, revival is going to be transformative, transformative, it's going to be transformation, not just salvation, it's going to be salvation, transformation, the move of the Spirit of God. And many people in this world, the majority of people who are catalysts, and who are the people of God who move in this revival in the nations will not be known in the earth, they will not be famous. You see, much like the order of Melchizedek, if you will, if you look at if you would do a study sometime and look at Levi, and Melchizedek. Because Levi is known, you know his lineages, you know all this stuff about Levi, you know, he's famous in Israel, and he's well known Melchizedek, the Scripture says nobody knows where he came from. Nobody knows where he went other than the king of Salem. And he's unknown. And it gives all these characteristics of Melchizedek. There is this, I'm not gonna say order. But there is this kindred newness to the way of Melchizedek where no one really knows your name, you're doing the things of God, you're kind of unknown to the natural world, but you're famous in heaven. Like you're really well known in heaven. You're, you're well known. And I believe God is raising up so many people, that when God raises up people, and he starts doing it in larger numbers, it's harder to be famous, right? Like, it's hard to stand out it as far as the natural goes. So we got it, we have to quit letting the flesh define what greatness is. You guys know this, but I just feel like we should say it, that God is calling us to be people who have that kindred Enos to Melchizedek that were unseen. We don't care who knows our name, because as long as God knows our name, there is no greater fame than for God to know your name and there's A lot of people worried about their ministry brand and worried about who knows about him and worried about their marketing, and all of this. And there's some good in that. But there's also a lot of stuff in there. That's just baggage of the flesh that you can cut off, not worry about, and it will set you free, and you can go do ministry, nothing's too small for you. And when you're doing the big stuff that's not too big for you. And you don't even worry about it, right, you just operate in it. And this is greatness. Now, I'll tell you this, guys. There's a lot of small places I've been, where God was doing something great. And I didn't know it. But if I had not carried the fire faithfully, then the revival would not have happened. And some of the revivals we've seen overseas was this way, where I didn't understand how significant it was. And then all of a sudden, I'm in the middle of a move of God. So I, I tell parents this a lot. One of and I mentioned this last week, one of the most important are not last week, but last session, we did hear that one of the most important times as a parent that you have with your children, is at bedtime, because you have a captive audience, you are being given golden nuggets of time slots, where you have their heart, to speak to them, and to connect with them and speak into their heart around bedtime. It's a profound time, because you have their attention. And yet many parents are in a hurry to get to the next thing, because it's been a long day. I promise you, if you carve out time with those kids, to tell them stories, but then transfer over to Bible what God says what God has happened. And then your Bible stories, that is what God is doing in your life, and you're sharing and your heart connecting with them, it will change their lives. But because it seems so insignificant in the natural, if you're looking through the template of the flesh, you can miss it. Right? Like if there were cameras, and the whole world was watching and you were on a reality show you think completely different about that time with those kids. Because the world is watching. And guess what Hebrews says? Heavens watching, all of Heaven is watching. And Revelation says that heaven is praying, and there's intercession going on. So I pray to God Help us, Lord, to see the significance of where we are every moment, every encounter, every place like we've seen in the song, open our eyes and cause us to see, because this call to the nation's if we're not careful will miss it. If it's not big in the natural, and yet, it is big in the spiritual and it will be big in the natural if we will not miss it in the name of Jesus. So that was just a short review. I want to read a few quotes from Lee Grady's book. And this is off the heels of saying we believe that the coming revivals in the earth are relational and transformational, relational and transformational. And not so much just big meetings, even though I think that will happen. And Beth had quoted Lee's book and one of the prayer streams when we had these discussions going on and praying. And his his new book is follow me make disciples the way Jesus did. And one of the things he says on page 14, he says, when we follow the cloud of his presence, he often leads us to the one instead of the many. He defines influence differently than we do. There are times when God will lead you to a nation by leading you to one person. And we just had this happen. We were praying here, well, a couple of months ago, I lose track of time. And we were praying over many of the people come into this country from other places, and we were praying over them. And there was a word that God was going to open doors to reach them. And then that very week, if you remember, Camilo and Paula, this door open for them to minister to people in their town, their city there, and it has just blossomed from there. And God is reaching a nation literally by beginning with one person. And so many times these encounters we have whether they're on Zoom, whether they're in person, whether they're intentional, whether they're that they're not planned by us, God is bringing us into encounters with the nations by means that we wouldn't necessarily orchestrate but that's okay. Let's not worry about the means let's let God worry about the means. But let's seize the moment that God has given us whether it is someone where we live or whether it's someone in the airport or whether it's I'm where we're traveling. And God has given us these divine encounters with relationships that are growing into spiritual family relationships. And all of this, I was thinking about this past week as we were ministering with and in the, in the ordination of all the leaders from Micronesian churches and I thought, man, what this is amazing. It can be traced back to one relationship, years ago, one relationship and a relationship that could have been missed. But yet God was in it. Now, another quote, I want to read to you, he says on page 97, on page 15, he says, We need to stop evaluating our own effectiveness, and each other's effectiveness by crowd size or popularity, popularity is one there. Thank God for your sphere of influence, and plant your spiritual seeds there. I want to say something about popularity. In working with young leaders over the years, there's a point where there's just there's growth, and there's this tremendous desire to have an impact. And so naturally, they become very concerned that they are prayed up, that they're anointed that the Holy Spirit is with them. Those are all good things. But if you get too focused, looking in the mirror, you're going to worry too much about whether or not your anointed whether or not you're this, whether or not you're that. And I'm gonna tell you, that's the enemy's playground. And what I mean is this, be prayed up, seek the Lord and be ready. But don't start over analyzing and looking at yourself in the mirror and overdo it. Because what will happen is, you'll be afraid when the time comes. And I've just just counseling with some folks this week who were talking about this very thing, and that's why it's fresh on my heart. Because they're like, you know, I, I was preparing and I was getting ready. And then I was like, I don't know how I'm anointed enough. And I'm like, quit worrying about what people think about you. And they're like, what I said, quit worrying about what people think about you. And they go, you're right. You're right, because I'm worried about will they see that I'm anointed. And it's like, it doesn't matter, God. Have you ever noticed that? You have these times when you minister and you don't feel that great, then God just moves powerfully. And then another time you're all prayed up, man you studied up, you're, you're the most studied up you've ever been, you go out there and do it. And it seems like nothing happened. It's happened to me so many times, and God's trying to show us something. He's not trying to say, don't be studied up, don't be prayed up. But remember this, that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, it's by His power that we will reach the nation's not by our power, the breakthroughs will come in our lives by simple obedience and consistent faithfulness in God. And we're not talking about going to heaven, we're talking about receiving the promises of God and taking in the harvest and doing the work he's called us to in the great commandment. So that loving becomes more important than all the other things and then the energy. And I said this last time, we talked out of a nuclear reactor of spiritual friendship, close relationships. This is the energy this is where the energy comes from, to live and move in these vineyards where there was some Beth had sent out a great text today, as we're entering this spiritual biblical season, in fields, and I won't go into it, but she related it back to the this parable of vineyards, that Parable of the Vineyard and how the vineyard workers that began early missed the whole reward. They missed what the reward was. I'm going to tell you, when you guys, some of you can remember back to this and some of you're still in it, hopefully all of you, but when you're in love, man, money doesn't matter. Do you remember, I tell you most couples, I know they're in love, they get married, and it doesn't matter. I'm like, Well, what are you gonna do for money, I will figure it out. You know, they're just like, now some of that is youthful ignorance, but most of it is just love and they're, they're going to take on the world. But love is a powerful force. And the love of God in the great commandment in us is an extraordinary force. So that when we operate in the great commandments, it's like being the difference between somebody who has a 12 gallon gas tank and somebody who has a spiritual nuclear reactor in their life. I mean, you know, I've read one time that some of the ships can go like an aircraft carrier could go for like five years on their fuel or their nuclear act or whatever. I don't know if that's true, but it's a good illustration to talk about the power of the great commandments in our lives, so that as we go to the nations, we are living in this spiritual love relationship. chips and family together. And it's so fulfilling. I want to read one more quote from Lee, in his book on page 15. He says we need to be delivered from worshipping big. Now, how do you relate to that? Yeah. He says, instead of striving for attention and focusing on size, we must invest in a few. Now, this caught my attention, because we were just recently at this conference where they were talking about investing in the future to impact the Mini and how Jesus did that. And he teaches us through his life example, that we have to spend more time with the fewer to impact many now, guys, let me specify something I want. I'm gonna just caveat this. Not just three people. Right? In other words, let me say, How would this have been if Jesus three, Jesus main investment was to Peter, James and John, you see where I'm going with this. In other words, the you can overdo this, you can overdo it so that it's us for no more. Y'all ever heard of that us for no more is not an inner circle, it's click a lot of times, you see what I'm saying. Now, I'm not saying that's always true. But the point we're trying to make is the inner circle that Jesus demonstrated, yes, he had this tight knit group of three, but his everyday life, say it again, his everyday life was with 12 men and their extended friends and family, but especially the 12, the 12 men. And so this is just the idea, our impression from Jesus life is that the few is somewhere around 12 to 70. Now, if you live a life of, of on a diet of relationships, in those numbers, what we've seen is there's tremendous spiritual synergy. If it gets if you try to spread yourself across 150, or 200, or you try to go back down to two or three, what ends up happening is you start feeling the deficit, because something is just less than natural about that. And so we're looking at Jesus example, that's all is what How did Jesus do this? And how do we follow in his example, and I'm not saying any of this as dogma, or, you know, hard and fast like you, you know, it's inflexible, but you get the general feel for what we're saying. So we talked about his tiny circle. And then we talked about his inner circle, his tiny circle three, and his inner circles, 12, and then his outer circle, their friends and family. And this is spiritual family level investment. And I believe this is key to us reaching the nation's I believe that we, as a spiritual family ecosystem, have to reach out and invest into the nations. So as we're reaching out into the Micronesian nation, as we reach out to Latin American nations, I, what my focus has been, as a few leaders, leaders here, these, these two leaders here, these two leaders here, these three leaders here, and not try to just invest into an exorbitant amount, but what will happen is they will repeat that process and it will grow and it will multiply. So you kind of get the feel there. This is a spiritual family level investment. You guys know this, we've said this many times. And this, I believe, is where spiritual fathers and mothers are formed. So if you think about it, spiritual fathers and mothers are formed, where they have spiritual fathers and mothers, and spiritual fathers and mothers, generally, are investing into them on a deep relational level. And that's what makes spiritual fathers and mothers. And that's how we that's how we multiply them. This is where I, you guys have heard me say this, I'm saying it again, I'm gonna try to repeat it 1000 times. This is where generational transfer happens in the kingdom of God is these kinds of power lines of relationships. So in other words, I can have a relationship of a tiny cord between us or we can increase that. But you know, the interesting thing is that the alternating current is in a wire is a good example. I like it as an example of a metaphor, because there's a current going both directions. So I've seen some people where they go, Yeah, I'm open to be spiritually fathered or mentored or whatever, but then they don't put a draw on that relationship. And I learned that with my own mentors and spiritual fathers and mothers, I had to put a draw on that relationship. And when I put a draw on the relationship, I found out there was way more than there. A lot of times, wisdom and counsel would not be given to me because I did not ask for it. Are you with me? But when I asked for it, then I got plenty. And then I learned to ask myself if there was ever a season or a relationship where I wasn't asking for counsel, and I wasn't asking for wisdom. Now, let me stop, just do a little, little personal story here. One time. I was I was wanting counsel. And so I was seeking counsel. And then finally, one day, it was like the Holy Spirit goes will random. Why are you asking all your peers? And I was like, Oh, yeah. Why am I asking all my peers? And I realized, because I was afraid of what my spiritual fathers would say, you ever been there? Boy, I was. I was there. And so then I realized I was like, Wait a minute. Oh. And so the Holy Spirit was just the way he was calling it out was by asking me a question. And then I realized, like, wait a minute, I need to ask them, I want to reach out to them, put a draw on them. And you know what, I was pleasantly surprised how rich the council was. And my fears were totally invalid, completely invalid. And there might have been more going on in my life there. But that was really the essence of what God was showing me. So this spiritual family and doing this when we're reaching the nations, that we do more than ministry events, are you guys tracking, we can't just do ministry events. And I love this because our team came back from Central America. And several of you guys were sharing this, that you were saying, hey, the ministry events were good, but we felt like the relationships were more important. And I felt the same way before you guys win, that we have to prioritize those relationships. Also, those are critical, because that's where the investment is going to come on a major level. And so I think you get the point, transition into this lifestyle is a transformation from the kingdom edition mindset, to the kingdom multiplication mindset. Now, this is very counterintuitive to the natural mind. And it goes back to what Lee Grady was saying, he was saying, Hey, we have to stop worshipping big and start focusing on the things that are important to God. Because a lot of times he is working in a in a like on a significant national monumental level in a nation by reaching those individual relationships and families. And this is very counterintuitive, because there's this mindset that if we, if we just have a whole bunch of people we're investing into Well, every time you add another person you just diluted how much you can invest into those people. Right? So it's kind of like what I say about grandparenting. Now, we just had grandbaby number 18, who's with us here today? And I'm going to tell you, grandparenting is way easier than parenting was. Just for those of you that may not know that. It's I'm telling you, I love it. I'm wondering why we didn't just start with grandparenting. And then but you know, we have to start with parenting. Being a grandfather to 18 grandchildren is way easier than being a father to one workwise it's different. But here's the point. That's multiplication. That's the way God works generational transfer. So God is saying, Hey, if you focus on the things I've called you to do, you does that remind you of a scripture, My yoke is easy. My burden is light. But when the flesh starts counseling you on what significant ministry for you, then you will start trying to reach the nations the way the flesh reach to that nations and stead of what way the Holy Spirit reaches the nation's. I picked the Holy Spirit's way. Because it's powerful. And the yoke is much easier to carry. And it's very enjoyable to be in the vineyard to go with that theme that the season we're in that Beth was sharing. It's so enjoyable to be in the vineyard and work together with God's people. Because you don't have to be the superstar. You don't have all these expectations. You don't have to prove how anointed you are. You don't have to do all that. You just have to be prayed up, consistent and faithful. Now, if you find that your your heavy duty prayer time is right before you minister every time. I'm not saying don't pray more before you minister, but be prayed up all the time. And then when the time has come for ministry, you just be used to it. You're anointed, you're ready. You're tuned in you're walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's just a lot easier way to do life in God. And that's the easiness of the yoke of Jesus. Amen. I know somebody will say amen to that. So here's the question. As you can start to ask yourself, Who are my 12? And who are my 70? Think about that. Now the 12 is usually pretty easy to identify, I would say this three or four are usually too easy to identify, that's probably a better way to say it. But when you start getting to 15, and 20, it gets much more difficult to see who is your spiritual family that you live and do life with. Now I know guys, in this setting, I'm preaching to the choir, I understand that. But we have to teach and preach this message. And this is going out. And we've got listeners right now in many nations. So I do want to ask these questions. Who is your spiritual family that you live and do life with? Not just who you sit next to at a church pew? But who do you do spiritual life with? Who do you eat with? Who do you break bread with? Who do you pray with? Who do you share your burdens with? I hope it's more than two or three people. But that's important to have those two or three. But it's also important to have those 12 How committed are you to the nations with the spiritual family. In other words, this is not for us to just have good meetings and love each other. We are here to reach the nation's I know, everybody on Zoom saying amen to that one, even though I got your muted right now. So that our call is to the nation's God's call for us is to the nations of the world, not just to our to be happy in our spiritual family. And you know, many churches get into this. So these are things to think about. Core biblical values. We say this a lot. But the core biblical values now and we're starting to summarize this whole series, all 29 parts for us both how we live, but also how we do ministry is intimacy, simplicity, and legacy. I'll say it again, intimacy, simplicity, and legacy, intimacy, because we're talking about relationships. We are first a relational people, because that is the first and greatest commandment. I was just studying this this past week, and realized with the great commandment, Jesus was the first one I could find in Scripture, who called that Pat that commandment, the first commandment, I could find no other passage of scripture. And if there is, please let me know because I definitely want to know, I could find no other person in Scripture, who said, The Love Your Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength is the first commandment. And I could find no other person in Scripture who said it was the greatest commandment. So Jesus, as far as I can tell, is the person who said it is the first and it is the greatest. And if we live with it as the first and the greatest, we will be a people who learned to live in closeness now. It's closeness difficult. Right? I mean, ever all of us Amen to that. Because if we just pick, if I just go pick the three people that I, it's easy for me to live with, then what it's going to happen is I'm going to limit what God is trying to do in my life to reach the nations. And so I want to move into relationships God's called me to, and unfortunately, God is sometimes called me to some difficult relationships. And some of you who know me, well have heard some of those stories offline. But you know, God brought tremendous fruit from those relationships. We just had to press through certain things. But this is the lifestyle of the great commandment is to be people who love God and love one another. And we work through that as a people. And then God begins to expand not only his influence in our lives, but the synergy of his kingdom, and what he's doing. The second one is simplicity. And it goes back to this, this yoke of Jesus, the concept here, we really do want to become good at throwing off yolks of the flesh, yolks of the world and expectations that the flesh and people who aren't walking in the Spirit tried to put on us. And there are Christians walking around. And literally, if you can picture a yoke that's on oxygen, oxygen, they are wearing 10 yolks, they got so many yolks of expectations that they're way down. And the Lord said, Hey, you don't have to wear all those jokes, get those things off of you. And you know, just start throwing them off. Right and you know, maybe you're in that boat right now and you need to just do that. Just throw those jokes off all those expectations of the flesh and of the world, and of what's impressive and what makes money and you know, I'm trying to throw out different adjectives, but you get the idea. So let the Holy Spirit show you and get down to the one yoke. And so what this really means in simplicity is where a yoke one goat people, and God has called us to invest and coach and teach and mentor other people, to have the kingdom to become one yoke people. Now, here's what I love about the one yoke people Jesus said this in Matthew 633, Seek ye first the kingdom, and all these other things shall be added to you. So all those yolks they were wearing, to try to get those things they need, they thought they need God's like, hey, really, there's an easy way to do this. If you just wear this one yoke, seek Me and put your whole heart and life into the kingdom and the spiritual family. God's called you two, which is the kingdom of God, then all of a sudden, the blessings will come at you from the directions they need to come. And Jesus says, My yoke is easy. Wow. Now you guys, I love that. I love that that kind of yoke I, I love this yoke lifestyle, the one yoke lifestyle. But I'll tell you, I've lived with 10 yolks on before. And I did not like it, it wore me down. It became difficult. And I think many people suffer many physical problems and stresses, because they got these other yolks on. And so may the Lord deliver us from those other yolks and we be one yolk people. The third one, the third is legacy. So we're not thinking about ourselves. I'll tell you what, if if you and I can get past worrying about what people will think about us, and just invest into what Jesus thinks about us and his heart and love people, the way he's called us to love and the way he's called us to serve. And I'm not saying you have this, but I'll tell you this, the flesh will creep up and tell you your interests are at stake and God's like, Hey, I've got you covered. If you'll focus on legacy that is the future generations, and put your heart and your soul into the kingdom and future generations. It's amazing how free we are. Because we've made that transition from success to significance. They've actually done studies, psychological studies of people. And they found that many people focus very hard on success in their early lives. But the healthiest people have this point somewhere in their life, some earlier in their life. And some much later, when they finally realize, hey, success is about your legacy. It's about significance of others in your impact of others. And so they make this transition from success to what they call significance. But what they really are talking about in the study is legacy. It's about your, the domino impact of your life, here upon the earth. And that was not even a spiritual study. But it has a spiritual application. And some of you heard me do a teaching earlier in this series. When we talked about Elijah, this idea with this idea with Elijah his life, we talked, we did a couple of different installments in this series. And guys, listen, I want to tell you personally, what the Lord was saying to me, it personally impacted me on a major level. Because Elijah's life up until the cave had been focused on it, Elijah's ministry, and everything changed. Whenever this happened, there was a shift, there was a divine transition, where it shifted to legacy. And he was no longer focused on his own success. And God focused him on Elijah. And this is when all of those schools of the prophets began to rise up and they had sons of the prophets and these other generations. And I believe this is when the multiplication of the mantle of Elijah that Malikai talks about began in Scripture. And so that's where we are, is focusing on and being really legacy as a key trait, a key value that we have invested in others. And then there's the process. And as God continues to raise up close friends of Jesus, spiritual leaders, and spiritual fathers and mothers, we usually recognize them initially, because of four qualities that we've talked about many many times in in Aaron Nova, but also in this series. I think I might have mentioned him once. And there's four qualities heart for God, availability, faithfulness, and teachable ability. Those are four qualities. And I'll tell you, for me personally, God has called me said, Rod, you will not have those four qualities unless you're intentional. Because honestly, guys, I just thought, Okay, once I got them, I got them. And the Lord's like, no, no, no, no, you have to keep focusing. And so what I began doing is just doing an inventory and saying, Okay, Lord, what is my heart for God this week? What is my availability to God's purposes, and to the call of God and to my spiritual family? Faithfulness and teachability? Same thing. And what I found is, in my own life, is it's actually possible to quit doing or quit having one, it's actually possible. And we specially see this with teachability. I don't know what it is. But the closer you get to 50, and you guys, some of you can can relate to this, because you've passed 50 You're with me? And yeah, some of you, you look younger than 50. But you're past 50. Amen. All right, I'm telling the truth you do you look younger and 50. But my point is this, that there is a point in our lives, where if we're not careful, we'll lose teachability. This is very important. This is why I believe it's so important to have active spiritual fathers and mentors and mothers in our lives, because they help us remain teachable. And if we lose the the robustness of those relationships, it's very easy. Because you know, as you learn, start learning more what Paul say, knowledge, puffed up, knowledge will make you arrogant. Now, you know, and I remember praying this prayer many years ago, because my dad told me, he says, Listen, Rod, he goes, I've met a lot of educated idiots. And I said, What What are you talking about? And Dad said, he starts heat. He's telling me about, look how smart this guy is. He has, he's got a physics major. He's got a calculus major. And he just in it'll name something that happened. I won't say on this, because it goes out to the whole world. And the guy might be listening. But he's like, look, what? And then he goes and does this. And I'm like, Oh, I see what you mean. And my dad told me this many years ago, he says, For every pound of knowledge that you have, you're going to need two pounds of wisdom. And so I made it a prayer, I said, Lord, please give me the wisdom, to handle the knowledge that's given to me. And then I found as I got older, I needed wisdom, and humility, for the anointing, and giftings that are given. And so the more giftings grow in our lives, the more the anointing of the Holy Spirit grows in our lives, the more God calls us to impact his people. The more we need deeper humility, the more we need wisdom, the more we need to walk in closeness to the Holy Spirit. This is a profound thing. And and so I just pray that God will speak to your heart, and how he will about that. And so as we invest into these people who have a heart for God, availability, faithfulness, and teachability, they that grow stronger. Did you ever notice that when you start pressing into your heart for God, it got stronger? Did you ever notice that the more available you made yourself to God into his ways, you really start getting into it? And you're like, Man, I want to do this more, and you made yourself more available? Or did you ever notice when you're faithful to do something? You know, we were talking earlier about working out and different things and losing weight and all this? Did you ever notice that when you start working out or you got into a regimen and you start getting better at it, then you start to get better at it even more? Because there's momentum with that faithfulness with that teachability or whatever it may be. So this is this is a profound thing. So we're just closing out the series here. That's why I'm mentioning this. There also, when we grow into a spiritual family, a spiritual ecosystem, there is a holy fit. Now this is something I don't think I've ever taught. You guys on my my own family has heard me teach on this. My I know my my kids have heard me teach on this before because I used to teach this to the teenagers I'll explain in a minute, but there is a holy fit that grows and develops in us. And we start to fit like, Have you ever come into a spiritual family or a friendship? And initially, you were like a puzzle piece that didn't fit. And then as you Get as those relationships develop, something happens to that puzzle piece, and the edges get trimmed, and the edges get sanded. And all of a sudden, you find that, wow, there's a fit here. And you start to fit in. And literally, what happens is we become closer friends. And God changes us and transforms us. So that there is a connection to those values and that way of life. Now I use this illustration. And you might, it might be more clear to you, for those of you who are going to be raising teenagers, or are raising teenagers, and I'm looking out on Zoom, because I see several here that have that will either be in that boat or might be in this boat, there's something I used to teach the kids. And I would say the human heart tends to form and mold to others that we come into close relationship with. So the more the heart forms and molds, the more it sets into that compatibility. And here's the example I would give I would say, when you develop a relationship, and I'm talking about when they were in courtship, and they would start courting someone that they were interested in, it's very quickly the human heart, especially as a teenager, starts to form to that person's personality. And like those things and all these things, there's a certain adaptation that starts to happen to the heart. And I would use this example, take two pieces of Plato, Plato, Plato, Plato, they are clear, because we're clay, take two pieces of Plato, and squeeze one piece in one hand to a certain shape, and squeeze the other into the other hand in another shape, and then put the two together. When you're young, those two hearts will start to mold and develop certain appetites for that personality of that person. And they begin to develop, and they start to bond. And here's the problem, if that relationship is not God's relationship for those two to be married, many times when you separate the two pieces of Plato, Plato, now it has formed to a certain shape that is to the shape of that person's heart. And I've seen this happen over and over and counseled people over and over and over, many, many times. And we would, I would talk with people, couples, even who are married and they're having problems. And then when I would start counseling them, what would happen is, they gave their heart away earlier in life. And they developed certain things in ways they like in a person, and they got a soul connection or a soul tied to that person, but their heart formed to that person in that personality and what have you. And the older you get, the harder it is for that that malleability to happen. This is why I tell young people do not give your heart away, do not give your heart away and courtship, until you have a certainty in your own life and those that you trust around you that this is the person because you will mold and form. In many ways, that's the way we're created is to mold and form to bond with another person. And so there's a certain shape that comes to our souls. Why am I saying this? Because on another level of relationships, not a romantic level, but on a spiritual level. When we come into spiritual families, many times our playdough is hard. Or we're set in our ways. Can I say it that way? We're set in our ways. And we're like, man, yeah, and we don't necessarily fit in well, then, over time, God starts adding the oil of the Holy Spirit to the playdough of our hearts, and we start becoming malleable. And then we start bonding with family. We bond with people, our own age people younger than us, people older than us, the kids we, we because we are no longer just a group of people who go to church together. We are spiritual family. And then when that happens, it's wonderful, because then it's like family. Now those of you who've been married a long time, we just had our 35th wedding anniversary. A lot of things that were big conflicts in our marriage in the first few years. Some of those things still come up. But we're just like, Well, you said that no, was it that well, big deal, you know, and we laugh and we go on, and it's no big deal. Because we we literally our hearts have formed to each other so much, that even if there's shortcomings in us, it's not a big deal because our hearts have formed and those divine shapes of our soul. have really bonded with that family and with that spouse and with those kids, and what have you. And there is a there is a relationship, connection that has changed who we are. Now, it would be funny for you guys that. And I think no one here newest Beth and I before we were married. And so we acted different before we were married, I can tell you that there's a whole lot of me and my wife. And there's a whole lot of my wife and me. That wasn't the case before. But what happened was, go back to the two playdough pieces, I started to form and mold to her. And she started to form and mold to me. Now I learned early on in marriage, if you're not careful, you will start transferring your negative traits to your spouse. You got to be careful. And so Beth and I purposed in our hearts. Early on, we said you know what, both of us are coming into this marriage with blessings and baggage, say blessings and baggage, you know, you see what I'm saying we brought blessings and baggage from our family lineage. And so we covenant together, we're going to leave the baggage and bring the blessings into this relationship. And what that did was it helped us mold in a much more redemptive fashion and bond with one another. So that I got Beth's good qualities, she got my good qualities. And as best we could, we pruned off those bad qualities. Now I'd like to say we did a perfect job at that. But we didn't. But we sure did a good job at it. I'm telling you, we did a good job at it. And many of you you're doing a good job at it also. But what we're saying is when we come together as spiritual families, the same thing happens, this molding together happens. And we start to we start to learn the likes and the dislikes, and the tastes and all these different things. And we start to mold to that. And then God begins the bonding process. This is all part of the great commandment, the first commandment, and loving the Lord, our God of law heart. So mine string. Man, I could talk about this all day too, because it's wonderful. It's our calling, and sincere desire to carry this DNA and live on the foundation of these seven pillars. And God has called us to connect with the nations. And now we're sensing this call to build an alliance of churches and spiritual families who identify with this call to raise up spiritual fathers and mothers people in this mantle of Elijah, and live a spiritual family. So that we are intentional in this alliance to say you know what, we are unified in this common undertaking. And in this common Association, if you will, to go out and say we are going to raise up spiritual fathers and mothers, we are going to reach the nation's by being people who live with this DNA. And we already see many people doing it. And they're kind of like us, we were doing it, but we really didn't name it. And we didn't identify or describe it. So I believe these are key core values of the early church. And there's others, I understand that there's more values than intimacy, simplicity and legacy, we get that. But we're just highlighting some of these that we see as both values and pillars that are part of this spiritual DNA. And so some of you know this, I've said it before. But if you look at the first three pillars, all of them, intimacy is the key value. So look at it, prayer, spiritual disciplines, New Testament community and spiritual family, those three pillars, the main value of those three pillars is intimacy. So the fourth pillar is a lifestyle of obedience and listening. That is the simplicity. In essence, that is what we're talking about simple obedience. And then the last three pillars, a call to raise up spiritual fathers and mothers, a call to raise up spiritual leaders, and a call to the nation's that is legacy. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you to be alive in this hour and this time, what an honor it is father to be a part of this. And Lord, we want to give you thanks for the friends you've given us to walk this journey together, how beautiful and awesome it is, to be working in these vineyards together. To be a one yoke people to walk in the yoke and love of Jesus to experience the greatest reward of all and that is, you are exceedingly great reward. And so we pray, Lord, that all these things you're saying to us that you'll cause to sink into our hearts, our spirits, our lives, our practice, our community, ministry everything so that you in fullness are all in all, in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. 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